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Ben-Gvir Calls For Execution of Palestinian Hostages with ‘Shot to the Head’

A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)
A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)
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Ben-Gvir Calls For Execution of Palestinian Hostages with ‘Shot to the Head’

A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)
A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)

Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called on Sunday for the execution of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails by shooting them in the head.
In a video statement, Ben-Gvir insisted that Palestinian prisoners should be killed with a ‘shot to the head’.
He urged the passing of the bill in the Israeli Knesset for executing prisoners, promising to provide minimal food to keep them alive until the law is enacted.
The Israeli Knesset's General Assembly approved the preliminary reading of the bill in early March 2023, which imposes the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners.
The proposed law, requiring two more readings in the Knesset to become effective, mandates courts to impose the death penalty on those “committing a murder offense motivated by racism and intending to harm the State of Israel.”
Fighting Any Palestinian Presence
Since October 7, 2023 when Israel waged a war on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian prisoners have been living in horrific conditions. Many died under torture or due to difficult living conditions.
According to the head of the Prisoners' Club, Abdullah Al-Zaghari, “The statements of fascist and extremist Minister Ben Gvir represent a system that practices genocide against the Palestinian people, and only speaks in the language of killing and fighting any Palestinian presence in any form.”
He noted that Ben Gvir's statements went beyond the stage of threat.
Since Israel waged its war on Gaza, “the occupation prison administration, which falls under Ben-Gvir’s authority, has actually executed Palestinian prisoners and detainees,” Al-Zaghari said.
The Israeli occupation forces have arrested more than 9,450 citizens from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since last October 7, along with thousands of citizens from Gaza, and hundreds of Palestinians from the territory occupied in 1948.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, there has been a simultaneous and unprecedented escalation of torture against detainees.
They also mentioned unprecedented crimes against detainees, most notably torture, starvation, medical neglect, forced disappearance, in addition to the tragic and cruel conditions of detention, mass isolation, and torture, apart from the tragic and cruel conditions of detention, mass isolation, and torture.
Unprecedented Arrests
The Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said the detainees include those arrested from their houses, on checkpoints, those who surrendered under pressure and those arrested as hostages.
They added that the detention campaigns carried out since October 7 are accompanied by escalated crimes and violations such as humiliation, brutal beatings, threats against detainees and their families, besides vandalism and destruction in detainees’ houses, confiscating vehicles, gold and money, in addition to the destruction of infrastructure.
The Commission and the Prisoners’ Club also confirmed that 18 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons and detention camps since Israel waged its war on the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, a CNN investigation revealed grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the secret detention center located in the Negev Desert.
The American news channel said it spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. All spoke out at risk of legal repercussions and reprisals from groups supportive of Israel’s hardline policies in Gaza.
They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.
According to the accounts, the facility some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gaza are placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital where wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws.
“They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital.
After an outcry, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the military launched a probe into the allegations of mistreatment at detention facilities that fell under the responsibility of the Israeli army.
Last week, the Haaretz newspaper said Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the state to provide details of the conditions under which Gazan prisoners are held in the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel, despite the state's declaration that it intends to empty the facility.

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Arab World

Türkiye's President Calls the War in Gaza an 'Ecocide' at the UN Climate Summit

Erdogan pledged to continue investigations into the investment funds scandal until its eradication and to prevent its recurrence (Turkish Presidency)
Erdogan pledged to continue investigations into the investment funds scandal until its eradication and to prevent its recurrence (Turkish Presidency)
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Türkiye's President Calls the War in Gaza an 'Ecocide' at the UN Climate Summit

Erdogan pledged to continue investigations into the investment funds scandal until its eradication and to prevent its recurrence (Turkish Presidency)
Erdogan pledged to continue investigations into the investment funds scandal until its eradication and to prevent its recurrence (Turkish Presidency)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called for the world to recognize the environmental impacts of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and asked the Israeli government to grant more aid access to the Palestinian territory.

Erdogan was speaking at the UN climate summit, known as COP31, in Antalya, Türkiye.

“What has taken place in Gaza is not only a genocide, but it is also an ecocide,” Erdogan said to applause by world leaders and other climate envoys.

A UN-backed panel of independent experts concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies the allegations and has accused the panel of antisemitism, The Associated Press said.

“Centuries old olive trees have been cut down. The soil and water have been polluted in Gaza, and cities in Gaza have been turned into enormous piles of rubble,” Erdogan said. “With Gaza’s destroyed infrastructure, compounded by torrential rain and by flooding, tens of thousands of tents and shelters have been inundated.”

Israel's Foreign Ministry responded in a post on X, accusing Erdogan of “using an international forum to push his anti-Israel campaign of lies” and of supporting Hamas. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza following attacks by Hamas-led militants in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Militants killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

“Those who truly care about Gaza should demand that Hamas disarm so reconstruction can begin,” the statement read. Israel wasn't invited to COP31.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 74,000 people, according to local health authorities, and destroyed much of Gaza. The Health Ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up nearly half of the dead.

Erdogan has been an outspoken critic of Israel, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Erdogan an antisemitic “tyrant.”

“The latest country to become a superspreader of antisemitic lies is Türkiye," Netanyahu said in September while speaking at the UN General Assembly.

In recent days, heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding destroyed many of the tents and makeshift shelters that Palestinian residents now live in. At least four people were killed earlier this week when a sand embankment collapsed on their shelter. The rain also left many displaced people without food, drinking water or a dry place to sleep.

Humanitarian aid enters the territory, but imports remain far below levels before the start of the Israel-Hamas war — and many items remain blocked by Israel.

A 2025 report by the UN Environment Program also outlined the devastating reality of Gaza’s environment since the war began.

Remote sensing assessments showed that by May 2025, more than 97% of the tree crops, 82% of annual crops, 95% of shrubland and 89% of grass and fallow land had been damaged, according to the UNEP report.

“As of now, our families only have 3% of cropland to use, and that is assuming it’s distributed across 2 million Palestinians" in the Gaza Strip, said Mohammed Usrof, co-founder and executive director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy.

“Not talking about these losses undermines Palestinians’ food supply, livelihoods and ability to remain on their land,” Usrof said.

The territory’s ability to dispose of garbage, treat sewage and deliver clean water has been virtually decimated by three years of war. This has made grim living conditions worse and raised health risks for hundreds of thousands of people deprived of adequate shelter, food and medicine, aid groups say.

The conflict has “all but eliminated” Gazan fishing livelihoods, the report said, highlighting how marine ecosystems have been contaminated with munitions, sewage and solid waste.

“For people in Gaza, this translates into severely limited access to safe drinking water, greater exposure to waterborne diseases and toxic substances, deepening food insecurity and the loss of livelihoods dependent on agriculture and fishing,” Ghiwa Nakat, executive director at Greenpeace MENA, told The Associated Press.

Nakat also warned that Gaza's environment could take years to recover.

“The environmental damage will not end when the war ends,” Nakat said. “Contaminated soil and groundwater, destroyed ecosystems and the collapse of essential environmental infrastructure could undermine public health, food security and livelihoods for generations, threatening communities’ resilience and their ability to recover.”

World leaders began formal talks at COP31 this week, seeking agreement on concrete steps to curb global warming after a year of deadly floods, heat waves and other climate-related disasters.

More than 70 world leaders and senior government officials are speaking at the summit, though some key leaders are absent, including heads of state from the United States, China and India.

Arab World

Israeli Strike on a Gaza Hospital Kills 6 People

Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense inspect damage inside a building at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip November 12, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Stringer
Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense inspect damage inside a building at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip November 12, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Stringer
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Israeli Strike on a Gaza Hospital Kills 6 People

Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense inspect damage inside a building at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip November 12, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Stringer
Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense inspect damage inside a building at Nasser Hospital following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip November 12, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Stringer

An Israeli airstrike targeting the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed six people and wounded at least a dozen more, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

The strike was carried out early Thursday, according to the Israeli military, which said it struck “a senior Hamas terrorist” and other militants, without providing evidence.

The Gaza Health Ministry said the strike hit the hospital’s surgical wing and that a doctor was among the dead. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said that parts of the building’s second floor were destroyed.

Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis is one of the few functioning medical facilities left in Gaza, whose healthcare infrastructure has been decimated by a yearslong war.

Israel accuses Hamas and its allies of using hospitals as cover for military activity. In a statement, the Israeli military said Hamas had “established a presence within the hospital complex” and was using it as “a command center for military and terrorist activities.”

Israeli forces have previously attacked and raided Nasser Hospital. In 2025, the military killed five journalists — including AP contributor Mariam Dagga — when it struck a gathering point for local reporters at the complex.

The war started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Since then, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 74,600 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government but whose figures are generally considered reliable by the international community.

Israel has continued to strike Gaza despite a US-backed ceasefire and controls at least 60% of the enclave. Since the truce went into effect in October 2025, Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed 1,622 people, health authorities say. Five Israeli soldiers have also been killed during that period.

 

 

Arab World

Israel Has Detained Dozens of Syrians. Families are Desperate for Answers

Ali al-Abdullah, 20, a former detainee released from an Israeli prison, holds a child in the village of Saysoun, in Syria’s Daraa province, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Haj Suleiman)
Ali al-Abdullah, 20, a former detainee released from an Israeli prison, holds a child in the village of Saysoun, in Syria’s Daraa province, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Haj Suleiman)
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Israel Has Detained Dozens of Syrians. Families are Desperate for Answers

Ali al-Abdullah, 20, a former detainee released from an Israeli prison, holds a child in the village of Saysoun, in Syria’s Daraa province, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Haj Suleiman)
Ali al-Abdullah, 20, a former detainee released from an Israeli prison, holds a child in the village of Saysoun, in Syria’s Daraa province, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Haj Suleiman)

Ali al-Abdullah spent more than five months in Israeli detention centers last year after being taken from a village in southwestern Syria. He said he was beaten and placed in solitary confinement, but that no charges were ever brought against him.

Kinan Baker was detained by Israeli forces last year from a nearby Syrian village in a middle-of-the-night raid of his home. His family has not heard from him since and does not know where he is or why he is being held, The Associated Press said.

Al-Abdullah and Baker are among dozens of Syrians apprehended by Israel since its forces seized a UN-mandated buffer zone following the ouster of Bashar Assad nearly two years ago. Many were physically and verbally abused during raids and arrests and inside Israeli prisons, according to human rights groups, two former detainees and two relatives of current detainees.

Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone in December 2024 was met with resentment across Syria – especially among families living within or adjacent to the 235-square-kilometer (91-square-mile) area. The euphoria they felt following Assad’s ouster quickly evaporated as Israel introduced checkpoints and patrols in their villages and embarked on a flurry of detentions.

Families of detainees say they feel hopeless and powerless, and that their pleas to the Syrian government and the UN for information about their loved ones have fallen on deaf ears.

“We can only hold on to hope in God, and pray that he reunites us with our son,” said Huda Baker, the mother of Kinan.

The Israeli military said its presence in and around the buffer zone is needed to defend its northern border from Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group backed by Iran that fought closely alongside Assad during Syria's 13-year civil war.

Israeli “troops question and detain individuals when there is reasonable suspicion of their involvement in terrorist activity,” the military said. It rejected allegations of abusing detainees and refused to address specific cases because detainees and their families would not provide their Syrian government ID numbers.

Israel has launched strikes and raids after seizing buffer zone Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it — a move not recognized by most of the international community. To prevent future conflict, a 1974 agreement established a UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria adjacent to the Golan.

After seizing the buffer zone, Israel declared the 1974 agreement void.

Israel has erected military outposts and launched strikes, raids and incursions in Quneitra and Daraa provinces, which straddle the buffer zone. Its military activity has even reached the countryside southwest of Damascus, the capital.

Syria's new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa has demanded Israel withdraw from the buffer zone, and a spokesperson for the Quneitra province, Mohammed Saeed, said Israel’s allegations of militant activity there were “baseless lies.”

The civil war that led to Assad's ouster “freed the country from occupying forces, whether they were Iranian or Hezbollah forces present in the area,” said Saeed.

Former detainees say they were abused while in Israeli custody Forty-nine Syrians have been detained since December 2024, though 16 have been released over the past year, according to Syrian government officials and UN-backed investigators who have accused Israel of human rights violations in Syria.

The Syria Justice and Accountability Center, a human rights group based in Washington, said former detainees and relatives who witnessed arrests have alleged ill-treatment or torture. In interviews with the organization, former detainees said they were held in stress positions and threatened at gunpoint, said Salma Daoudi, a researcher at SJAC.

Al-Abdullah, 20, was detained in June 2025 at an Israeli checkpoint in the village of Ain Thakar, which overlooks the buffer zone. The soldiers asked whether he or anyone in his village was affiliated with armed extremist militant groups. He said he was unaffiliated and that no such groups were present in his village.

He was then placed into handcuffs, and for the next 5 months he was shuttled between different Israeli detention centers.

While he was in solitary confinement at two different prisons, “there was no ventilation, only light," and he would only be uncuffed for a couple of minutes each day to eat.

“Sleeping was not allowed. You had to remain seated cross-legged the whole time and were not allowed to lie down. You would spend seven days like that.”

‘Five minutes’ of detention turned into 15 months Huda Baker was asleep when the Israeli military raided her family home in August 2025. She said the military threatened to blow up the house if her son Kinan, 39, did not turn himself over within five minutes.

Her son walked out, she said, at which point he was blindfolded and handcuffed. He hasn't been heard from since.

While out walking in the village of Tranje in June 2025, Wadih Baker — no relation to Kinan — came across an Israeli army patrol. He was apprehended and told he would be released after five minutes.

He was detained for roughly 15 months. “I was held at a post near the Syrian border for one day ... and then the next day they transferred me to a prison.”

Both he and al-Abdullah said they were held in Israel's Ofer Prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and later the Sde Teiman Prison, in the Negev Desert.

Israeli and international rights groups have said that Palestinian prisoners in those facilities have faced torture and ill-treatment.

A father worries about his teenage son who was detained At least one Syrian was apprehended from the UN buffer zone before Assad was overthrown.

Saddam Saad Eldin was 16 in April 2024 when he was detained by Israeli troops while working in an olive grove.

His father, Hassan Saad Eldin, 47, said he has no information about where his son is and that Israeli troops have prevented him from accessing his farmland in the village of Jabata al-Khashab.

“They bulldozed an area of 10 to 12 dunums (2.5-3 acres) of olive groves and completely demolished a full livestock stable,” he said, pointing to a large dirt roadblock that obstructs his access.

The accusation that his village may harbor armed groups, whether Iran-backed or otherwise, baffles him.

“We are civilians — farmers and agricultural workers — with no external allegiances,” he said.

He speaks with former detainees upon their release, hoping for news about his son. A former detainee who saw Saddam told him that he hadn't been harmed. Still, he worries about his son when other former detainees discuss abuses they witnessed in prisons.